Key Points:

Meta allegedly lost as much as $100 million in signing bonuses in its bid to recruit OpenAI researchers away.

None of the OpenAI star researchers took the offers, reaffirming the team's dedication to the mission culture.

Key Background :

Meta has raised the stakes in the artificial intelligence space by actively poaching best-in-class talent at rivals such as OpenAI. After poaching Sam Altman, the social media giant has been making stunning offers—$100 million-plus signing bonuses, to be precise—on top-performing AI talent. The news comes as Meta keeps attempting to become the market leader in the area of superintelligence and close the gap with industry titans.

Altman's comments had provided the impression that the Meta offers were not standalone acts of charity but a sign of a greater strategic move. Employing the analogy of the recruitment drive and the way top sportspeople are being recruited, he once again affirmed that the researchers who were at the cutting edge of AI could not be quantified by numbers and hence were invaluable. Also, in spite of the financial incentive, old OpenAI core veterans have not been shaken. Altman praised his employees for holding dear long-term mission over short-term compensation.

He also criticized Meta’s approach, cautioning that focusing solely on compensation could erode team culture. For Altman, building resilient, high-performing teams requires more than just large paychecks—it demands a shared sense of purpose and belief in the company’s vision. He stressed that OpenAI’s commitment to developing AGI responsibly is what binds its team together and drives retention.

Meta has also made a strong move into the world of AI recently with significant investment in Scale AI and even recruiting its CEO to head Meta's new AI project. All this, however, has not been without a few bumps for Meta: slowed-open-source model releases, developer leakage away from its Llama organization, and challenging the performance claimed by its Llama 4 model. All these are signs of the difficulty of scaling an AI company when faced with humongous resources.

Ultimately, Altman emphasized that AI innovation does not necessarily depend on money—it is about vision, culture, and leadership. With the global competition for AI leadership heating up, he has no doubt that the mission-driven way of thinking and culture of OpenAI will continue to be appealing and capable of holding on to the best talents in the sector.